Seton Hall University
Rider
WS&D Throttles Rider for Second Victory
10/17/2014 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving
LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. - For the second consecutive meet, the Seton Hall women's swimming and diving team coasted to victory, recording the top performance in 14 out of 16 events in a 178-111 triumph over Rider in Lawrenceville on Thursday.
The Hall (2-0) has now finished first in 30 out of 32 events on the women's side in the early stages of the 2014-15 campaign after sweeping Montclair State in the opener last week.
Three newcomers in Kat Carson (Katy, Texas), Kylene Ronayne (Springfield, Pa.) and Sydney Simpson (Tallahassee, Fla.) each collected a pair of individual victories to lead a group of nine different Pirates to record a win against the Broncs.
Both Simpson and Ronayne led an all-Seton Hall top-three on the day, the first of which came when the Springfield product topped the 200-yard freestyle field with a time of 1:56.55. Sophomore Maddie Harris (Ocala, Fla.) and junior Cora Meehan (Noblesville, Ind.) followed Ronayne to the wall; finishing just over eight-tenths of a second apart.
Ronayne also claimed first in the 200-back, edging teammate and runner-up Melody Bush (Guelph, Ontario) with a 2:08.33 effort.
Simpson's 100-fly time of 1:00.06 paced a Seton Hall sweep of the top-three positions that included Gabi Levine (Garwood, N.J.) (1:00.22) and Tessa Lindner (Sun Prairie, Wisc.) (1:01.65). The performance followed a 200-breast win for the freshman earlier in the meet where she edged out Rider's top finisher by clocking in at 2:28.39.
Simpson (1:08.82) also placed second behind Megan Mallon (Glen Mills, Pa.) in the 100-breast as the senior earned first-place points after reaching the wall in 1:08.55.
Carson's two individual wins came in the sprint freestyle races as in just her second collegiate meet, the native Texan powered her way to the top spot in the 50-free (24.88) as well as the 100-free (55.15). Classmate Sam Shirtliff (Camp Hill, Pa.) took third at 100 yards with a time of 57.09.
Carson and Shirtliff also bookended a 400-free relay squad that featured contributions from Ronayne and Bush and posted a time of 3:40.41 that was nearly five seconds faster than the next-closest squad.
In the 200-medley relay, it was Bush and Carson who combined with Mallon and Levine to win a tightly-contested race with a time of 1:49.72.
Bush also recorded a 58.69 mark in the 100-back to emerge victorious by nearly 2.5 seconds. Fellow sophomore Cece Henry (St. Charles, Mo.) added a 200-IM time of 2:15.85 to out-touch teammate Kelsey Buonaiuto (Miller Place, N.Y.) (2:15.96) at the finish.
In distance freestyle competition, Connecticut natives Erica Naumann (Middletown, Conn.) and Courtney Regan (Southbury, Conn,) traded positions at 500 and 1,000 yards - each time comprising the top-two finishers.
Naumann was the lone competitor in the 1,000 to come in under the 11-minute mark; registering a time of 10:55.67 that ranked ahead of Regan's 11:00.64. Regan came back with a 5:20.82 showing in the 500 late in the meet, out-pacing Naumann by less than a second.
From the diving board, junior Gabby Signorelli (Massapequa, N.Y.) earned her third event victory of the young season with a score of 258.82 in one-meter competition.
The matchup with the Broncs stands as the Pirates' second-to-last dual meet of the fall as next up on the schedule is a trip to Baltimore on Saturday, October 25 for a quad meet with Drexel, Lafayette and hosts Loyola (Md.). Start-time is slated for 1:00 p.m.
